Information recording medium, device and method for playing back 3D images

Abstract

Provided is a recording medium allowing random access to be performed in playing back 3D graphics. The recording medium comprises a digital stream area where a digital stream including temporally-arranged GOP pairs is recorded; and a map information area where map information is recorded, the map information indicating entry addresses in one to one correspondence with entry times on a time axis of the digital stream, each entry address showing a beginning of a corresponding GOP pair region in the digital stream area, wherein each GOP pair including first-type and second-type GOPs, each first-type GOP is data indicating a plain view picture set to be played back from a corresponding entry time, and each second-type GOP is data to be played back with a corresponding first-type GOP to provide a stereoscopic view, the data indicating a difference between a stereoscopic picture set and the plain view picture set.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001](1) Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to an application format when 3D graphics is recorded on a recording medium.[0003](2) Description of the Related Art[0004]In recent years, the next generation DVD standards called the Blu-ray disc and HD DVD have been established, and therefore high definition and high-quality sound optical discs have been common among users.[0005]Regarding quality of moving images that can be recorded on such optical discs, while conventional DVDs are SD (Standard Definition), Blu-ray discs are HD (High Definition) with resolutions up to 1920×1080, and therefore can store therein images having higher image quality.[0006]In recent years, the number of visitors to movie theaters has been decreasing with the expansion of package media such as DVDs. Therefore, in the U.S. and in Japan, establishment of movie theaters in which visitors can enjoy three dimensional movies (3D movies) have been encouraged in orde...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]With the above-stated structure, since the pairs of the first group of pictures and the second group of pictures exists in the GOP pair regions indicated by the entry addresses in the recording area of the digital stream that correspond to the entry times, it is possible to reliably allow a user to perform stereoscopic viewing of moving pictures even when playback starts at an arbitrary entry time on the time axis of the digital stream. Therefore, the user can easily enjoy viewing 3D graphics at home.

[0013]The entry addresses each showing a header packet of a corresponding first-type GOP are in one to one correspondence with the entry times. Therefore, by reading packets from the recording medium in accordance with the entry addresses, it is possible to reliably send the first group of pictures to a video decoder without sending unnecessary data. Therefore, it is possible to immediately provide stereoscopic viewing starting from an entry point desired by the user when random access is performed on a video stream.

[0015]It is ensured that a complete pair of the first group of pictures and the second group of pictures can be sent to the video decoder by reading packets from a packet (m) indicated by an entry address (i) to a packet (n−1) immediately preceding a packet (n) indicated by an entry address (i+1). Since it is ensured, in the case of performing random access with reference to the map information, that the complete pair of the first group of pictures and the second group of pictures which can provide stereoscopic viewing are sent to the video decoder, the decoder can realize high-speed operation that quickly responds to a skip operation by the user.

Problems solved by technology

Although being capable of simply playing back 3D content from beginning to end is enough at the movie theaters, such playback is not enough in order to introduce the 3D technology to homes in a form of an optical disc.

In that case, it is problematic how to synchronize the two video streams at the time of random access in order to ensure that random access can be performed.

This is because data necessary for playback is not provided to a decoder.

As a result, stereoscopic viewing using parallax video cannot be performed in such time period.

Images